Zaha Hadid receives the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture at a ceremony held today at the University of Virginia. The honor is only the latest for the British architect, born in Iraq, who in 2004 became the first women to win architecture’s top prize, the Priztker.
In winning the Jefferson, Hadid joins a distinguished group of architects, writers, and planners including Mies van der Rohe, Lewis Mumford, Ada Louise Huxtable, James Stirling, Frank O. Gehry, and Jane Jacobs. The Jefferson Foundation and the University of Virginia have jointly awarded the medal for architecture since 1966.
Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan also receives a Jefferson award today, inaugurating the foundation’s new Medal for Citizen Leadership. Anne-Marie Slaughter, a professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University, will receive the 31st annual Jefferson Medal in Law.